Let's celebrate that great champion of the American working man, mining mogul Donny "Safety Is for Suckers" Blankenship

Donny, aka the "Dark Lord" of Coal Country, shares his insights with the Senate Appropriations Committee at a 2010 hearing on efforts to prevent mine disasters.

by Ken

I had a post slotted in for tonight to be called "Work sucks!" or something of the sort, but I thought we should put that off to take time to honor that great friend of workers everywhere, mining mogul Donny "Safety Last" Blankenship, chief executive of West Virginia's Massey Energy.

Howie has already covered the story of how, a mere four years after the fact, Donny is being indicted for his indispensable contribution, through gross disregard of mine-safety laws and an exhaustive collection of ignored mine safety violations, to the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that took the lives of 29 of his employees in April 2010. (My favorite headline: Rolling Stone's "Don Blankenship, Coal Country's 'Dark Lord,' Indicted.")

Well, better late than never.

Now it's easy to criticize, but there are two sides to every story, and when I heard the story of Donny's indictment on the radio this morning, I also heard his lawyer insisting that his client is innocent and is being "persecuted." Isn't that always the way with America's rich and powerful (and politically hot-wired)? What do they get in return for their making and shaking and baking of our economy but persecution? I guess they're just such easy targets for persecution, our rich and powerful (and politically hot-wired).

It remains to be seen how long it will take to adjudicate Donny's case, and how much time -- if any -- he'll do. Meanwhile, I thought the least we could do was to celebrate this great American with --

[Click to enlarge.]

Whatta guy!

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